Chapter 13: Courting Revolutionaries

BIBLIOGRAPHIES BY TOPICS

Algerian Independence

Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, “The Algerian Revolution and Independence,” in A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987).

General Paul Aussaresses, The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955-1957 (New York: Enigma Books, 2002). Aussaresses, a French army officer, revealed in detail the use of torture during the Algerian war of liberation.

Martin Evans and John Phillips, Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007)

Mouloud Feraoun [edited and introduced by James D. Le Sueur], Journal: 1955-1962: Reflections on the Algerian War (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000)

Marie-Aimée Helie-Lucas, “Women, Nationalism, and Religion in the Algerian Liberation Struggle,” in Margot Badran and Miriam Cooke, Opening the Gates: A Century of Arab Feminist Writing (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990).

Latin America: Cuba

Enrique Cirules, The Mafia in Havana (New York: Ocean Press, 2004) Information on BRAC, the Batista anti-communist unit established at the urging of CIA Director, which became instrument of terror.

Thomas G. Paterson, Contesting Castro: the United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) Paterson writes that Dulles bragged about being “the father of BRAC.”

Stephan G. Rabe, Eisenhower and Latin America: The Foreign Policy of Anticommunism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988)

Earl E.T. Smith, The Fourth Floor: An Account of Castro Communist Revolution (New York: Random House, 1962) Smith was the Ambassador to Cuba (1957-1959) when Castro came to power.

EXTENDED ENDNOTES

ALL notes correspond to the endnotes in Patriotic Betrayal, supply additional information or evidence, and should be read together.

Note 14: Battle for Algiers: In 2003, the U.S. Pentagon used this film to examine the relationship between torture and intelligence. According to a New York Times, concluded that the French got short-term tactical benefits from torture but that it didn’t help win the war over committed guerrillas. A flyer for the event read, “How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas.” (See New York Times, September 7, 2003)

Note 15: French use of torture: The French general, Paul Aussaresses, acknowledged the use of brutal torture techniques in his explosive book, The Battle of the Casbah (see above). He claimed they were routine, sanctioned by the highest levels of the French government, and did not apologize.

Note 21: Use of CIA funds: In 1954, Paris-based NSA representative David Duberman, a 1951 graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, sought funds to bring a French student leader, Jacques Balland, to the United States. Balland was critical of the International Student Conference, and had publicly criticized the ISC after the 1954 meeting in Istanbul. The use of funds to assuage foreign student critics was not unusual. H/NSA Box 26 (Duberman), June 8, 1956; Balland criticism H/NSA Box 12 (COSEC)

Note 36: Senator John F. Kennedy and NSA: The discussions between NSA and Senator Kennedy over the jailed Algerian student leader, Mohammed Khemisti were facilitated by Ralph Dungan, a former NSA national officer (1947-48), then an aide to Senator Kennedy. H/NSA Box 156 (Algeria, 1957-1958)

Note 63: Algerian Scholarship Program. The public announcement of the scholarship program was made by NSA on June 1, 1959, but NSA officials had privately committed to UGEMA leaders several months earlier, just prior to the ISC in Peru (February 1959), after a period of intense pressure from UGEMA officials. Prior to Peru, the President and the Vice President of UGEMA tried to come to the United States to visit NSA and tour campuses prior to the ISC in Peru, but were denied visas. After Peru, and the assurances of a scholarship program, Ait Chaalal Messauod and Chaib Taleb were granted visas for a May 1959 visit, just prior to the formal announcement of the Algerian Scholarship Announcement.

Sara E. Sagoff, who accompanied the two UGEMA leaders on their tour of American campuses, commented on the bad timing of the tour. Most students had either departed campus or were immersed in final exams. The Algerians also did not understand American docility in the face of segregation and racism. In an article for the Harvard Crimson, May 29, 1959, Sagoff wrote: “With this issue at stake, how, M. Aitchalal [sic] asked, can a campus be torn over the question of making a jacket and tie compulsory at dinner?”

Note 68: Echeverria/Castro Mexico City Pact: A DRE activist, Fructuoso Rodriquez, informed the American Embassy of the Castro-Echeverria agreement and his criticism of it. He, too, emphasized that Echeverria did not confer with his colleagues before entering into the pact. See http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/embassy/R7-141-9-5-1956.pdf

Note 70: Palace attack: The script read by José Antonío Echeverría over the non-transmitting radio was authored by Samuel B. Cherson, a FEU (Cuban student union) member who helped persuade the 1956 NSA Congress to support the Cuban cause by speaking directly to the delegates. A copy of “Batista is Dead” and more about the Palace attack may be found in an article by Alejandra Bronfman at http://alejandrabronfman.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/03-batista-is-dead_abronfman-ecar.pdf

After Castro took power, Cherson, like many anti-Batista revolutionaries, went into exile (to Puerto Rico).

Note 80: Latin American Dictators. According to Peter H. Smith (Talons of the Eagle), while Eisenhower opined it was ridiculous to charge the U.S. with supporting Latin American dictators, his Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had proclaimed, “Do nothing to offend the dictators. They are the only people we can depend on.” (p. 131)

In 1958, Vice President Nixon made a disastrous trip to Venezuela, due largely to student demonstrators. He labeled the demonstrations, “part of an organized Communist scheme” (New York Times, May 11, 1958). On May 22, 1958, the Times ran the following headline: “Nixon Urges U.S. Reassure Latins: Says Students and Workers should be shown nation opposes Dictatorships.”